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The search for the next Silicon Valley, Beach or Alley has become
a mission for Shane Reiser, co-founder of the Startup Genome. His
database of startup ecosystems has been cataloging founders,
investors, deals and the local community since 2011, all in an
effort to uncover the next big thing. This year, he's found five
cities that have laid the foundation for small companies to find
the investors and operational footing they need to grow big.

Tucson is nurturing long-term small-business success by taking
deliberate, ordered steps to surround startups with help.
According to Reiser, all community players--investors,
universities and government agencies--are involved from the
start. The pipeline begins with hackathons and maker fairs, like
those sponsored by Startup Tucson, which are held throughout the
year. These lead to startup weekends, at which the kernel of a
product or service is hashed out further. From there
entrepreneurs graduate to incubator programs. The new-business
track ends several months later with demo days and pitch events
involving potential investors. "These events aren't random,"
Reiser says, pointing out that they follow an informal but
methodical schedule. "They've created an entrepreneurial conveyor
belt."

And it's working. IBM purchased a Tucson-based analytics startup
for $500 million in 2011, and local biotech firm SynCardia
Systems' development of a next-generation artificial heart has
attracted cutting-edge engineers to the city. The investment
group Desert Angels is listed among the top venture capitalists
nationwide by Silicon Valley Bank.

Corvallis is home to Oregon State University, whose Austin
Entrepreneurship Program attracts innovators from around the
globe for a mixture of fellowships and seminars. Off-campus,
events like the Willamette Angel Conference have been showcasing
early-stage and seed businesses since 2009, pairing investors
with ventures in fields ranging from engineering to
pharmaceuticals.

But it's environmental technology that has become Corvallis'
calling card. Perpetua Power Source Technologies, a portable
renewable-energy technology that uses body heat to charge
batteries, is drawing attention, as is Zaps Technologies, a
water-quality monitor for municipalities.

Zaps began with research conducted at OSU, as did more than a
dozen other startups that have raised $160 million in capital
since 2003. And the university's Office for Commercialization and
Corporate Development keeps pumping out more: There are currently
seven startups in development, in businesses ranging from
firewall software to gene synthesis.

"Lincoln is starting to suck more people out of corporate America
and universities and get them to come out to the plains," Reiser
says. Last year the city began Startup Weekend events, putting
teams through a 54-hour crash course in launching a business.
"Welcome to the Jungle" is an open-mic event at the Fuse
CoWorking space in the city's Haymarket District, where members
of the community can practice pitches, ask questions or promote
their companies. And each Thursday morning, Crescent Moon Coffee
hosts informal entrepreneurial gabfests that attract about 40
regulars.

"Baton Rouge has a lot of ingredients that are finally coming
together," Reiser says. A big part of the mix is StepOne
Ventures, a development organization co-sponsored by JumpStart
America that invests up to $1.25 million in five high-potential
startups per year. Add to that the new AgCenter Food Incubator at
Louisiana State University, the newly opened Level Up Lab video
game incubator and a film industry that pumps hundreds of
millions into the local economy, and you've got a hot gumbo of
creative energy. All this potential has also attracted corporate
entities like IBM, which is building an application-development
center in the city.

"Because of people like Zack Miller, Norfolk came out of
nowhere," Reiser says. Miller is managing director of Hatch, a
startup accelerator that launched in late 2011 and has attracted
talent from around the country. Miller also runs the Start
Norfolk weekend, which brings together the tech set to come up
with a viable new business. These events, along with Tech-N-Eggs,
Code for America and Maker Faire, feed the community's
new-business pipeline.

When these entrepreneurs aren't hunkered down in an office
they're usually hanging out on Granby Street. "Every startup
community needs a location where serendipity can happen--that's
Granby Street for Norfolk," Reiser says. "Having the beach nearby
helps, too."